Wall Street Journal: Earmarks Sap Energy Chief's Priorities
Energy Secretary Steven Chu set out this year to address America's energy future with a network of new research labs. But lawmakers drafted their own blueprint: Instead of fully funding Dr. Chu's request, an energy-spending bill sets aside millions of dollars for such projects as an aviation-research institute, an environmentally friendly locomotive and air conditioning for a New Jersey museum.

Washington Post: Cap-and-Trade Would Slow Economy, CBO Chief Says
A House-passed bill that targets climate change through a cap-and-trade system of pollution credits would slow the nation's economic growth slightly over the next few decades and would create "significant" job losses from fossil fuel industries as the country shifts to renewable energy, the head of the Congressional Budget Office told a Senate energy panel Wednesday.

Washington Post: Master Classes in Teamwork
The private seminars usually take place on Tuesdays or Thursdays. The classroom often is a first-floor meeting room in the Capitol. The students are U.S. senators - sometimes a handful, sometimes more - and a collection of their staff members.

CNN: Backlogs continue to frustrate progress at VA
The Department of Veterans Affairs is still struggling with an enormous backlog in claims for medical and educational benefits that are piling up despite efforts to diminish the paperwork, the secretary of the department admitted Wednesday.

CNN: Steele's blog no longer titled 'What Up?'
After an initial round of Internet mockery, the Republican National Committee has apparently decided to drop "What Up?" as the title of Michael Steele's blog on the newly revamped GOP.com.

Washington Times: Geithner's top posts stay empty in crisis
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner is trying to lead the U.S. economy out of its doldrums with – figuratively – one arm tied behind his back: Almost nine months after the Obama administration took power, more than half of the 33 highest-level Treasury Department posts are still vacant.

CNN: Florida Democrat to resign seat
Florida Rep. Robert Wexler is resigning the seat he's held for 12 years to head up the Washington-based Center for Middle East Peace, the Democratic congressman announced Wednesday.

CNN: Labor groups call Senate health care bill 'deeply flawed'
More than two dozen of the nation's largest labor unions, a coalition that has previously been among the president's most solid bases of support, are taking out full page newspaper ads Wednesday to register their disapproval with the health care reform bill that has formally cleared the Senate Finance Committee.

New York Times: G.O.P. Has a Lightning Rod, and It’s Not Palin
Representative Michele Bachmann will appear in the 2010 calendar of “Great American Conservative Women” (she will be November). Her likeness has been transformed into an action figure. And, so far in 2009, she has been interviewed on a national cable news show every nine days, on average, an analysis by Smart Politics, a nonpartisan blog affiliated with the University of Minnesota shows.

CNN: Limbaugh dropped from group seeking to buy NFL team
The group of investors seeking to purchase the NFL's St. Louis Rams is dumping Rush Limbaugh from their effort after NFL executives, players and political leaders raised objections to the controversial talk show host's involvement in the bid.

CNN: For young mom, new CPR beat back death
The Hardens were losing track of each other's conversations. It had been a long, exhausting day for both Scott, a sheriff's deputy, and Kathie, an elementary school teacher. The couple put their two young children to bed, turned on the Food Network for a few minutes, then called it a night.

CNN: Don't trust Dow 10,000
As the Dow closed above 10,000 for the first time in more than a year Wednesday, economists cautioned that the blue-chip average shouldn't be seen as giving a green light to the economy.